Well as I sit here at 3:45am in dark and cold Newcastle, my mind reverts to the "You know when you are addicted to the Barrow-Downs when..." thread, in particular to the comment where members end up watching the "Who's online" page.

Well I think I am turning into one of them...I can't seem to log off. That and the thought of missing a good thread.

I was wondering if there were any others out there who are in the same situation, finding themselves online till late. This thread for me is rather like the "Late Night Bus" here for students who find themselves out past the closing time of public transport after a particularly heavy night and in need of a lift home!

Ahh what we would do without the "Late Night Bus"...although you have to find your way back to the Union first...

[Later Edit]
Note I would be out with them if it were not for a fencing farsity match tomorrow, I mean today. I've signed a "no-alcohol policy" before matches....something bought in by those pesky "New Shire" representatives I'm guessing! Blast
them!

That and revision is upon us students, the holy hours of "cramming" have begun. So while I write and read fantastic threads, I revise.

Or if you are not a "Late Nighter" then please, keep me and any other late nighters company...

The only problem is that, according to my calculations, it should be 7 35 AM in England, and perhaps any English early-birds might be around... furthermore, it should be an hour later in Germany (right?) that means that some of our German downers that go to work early in the morning....

And that's why one can come to the 'downs at any hour and find someone around... we are all over the place!!

Yet, in my case, I'm afraid that I didn't stay up 'downing... I stayed up studying Biochemistry. But of course, before heading to bed, I just had to check the downs.

Good night everyone, and good morning for those of you in other timezones... Farael's late-night bus is doing its last run, straight to bed. With a quick stop at the bathroom I guess

Location: Polishing the stars. Well, somebody has to do it; they're looking a little bit dull.

Posts: 2,897

I must admit, every night I'm on the Barrow Downs until the wee hours of the morning. This is mostly because I'm in the middle of doing schoolwork- I use the Downs to take a break and as a further excuse to procrastinate. Like right now, it's 2:45am and I still have two papers to write. Though, on weekends I sometimes stay on the Barrow Downs late to write posts for the RPG I'm in. As a perfectionist, it takes me hours to write those things, so I'm usually up until 3 or 4 in the morning.

I find it spooky sometimes at night when, looking at the "Who's online" list, it's only me. Feel like I should go around the Downs and check the windows and doors and turn down the lights; maybe get out a dust mop and clean the floors.

When I am on at night I rarely post as at least one child, by then, has made it into the room, and not only is typing the dark hard on the eyes ("Where did the 'k' key go?") but also it gets the little ones stirring, which is never a good thing.

Stay awake while you can; eventually getting up even after a night's sleep (not that I have experienced that in many years, but I've heard about it), when you're older, can be rough in itself.

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There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.

Lately I've found myself staying up in the 'wee hours of the morning.' If you check some posts (and do the conversation) I'm sure it'll work out to about 1:30-2:00 in my time zone. Mostly because it's been rather smooth sailing only having half work days up until the start of the New Year...and I'm usually away at nights doing something.

So, when I get back and don't feel like sleeping yet I'll come and check out the downs well into the 'morning.'

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I used to be for flip-flopping. Now I'm against it.

You are a lucky man, Boromir88, university has shown a nasty habit of springing lots of rather important things at the most inappropriate of times, namely, exams and coursework on the last day of the semester no less!!

Though to all the "Late Nighter's" I myself will be "chickening out", as I have the exam tomorrow an early night is called for, let the little grey cells rest.

Location: In a tiny, insignificant little town in one of the many States.

Posts: 5,228

It's only 10:30 now for me, but I think I've gotten as late as 11:00. That's nothing compared to 2 or 3, though. How can you college students stand it? I think I'd die if I stayed up till then and got up the next morning for classes.

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A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. - C.S. Lewis

Location: Polishing the stars. Well, somebody has to do it; they're looking a little bit dull.

Posts: 2,897

Ah, just wait until you're in college, Folwren.

While I've always been quite a late-nighter during the weekends and summer, during school nights in high school, I always was in bed no later than midnight. The difficult thing I've discovered about going to bed in college is that the entire campus is loud and active until around 2ish. I have a tendency not to go to bed until everyone else does, which is a problem since one of my suitemates doesn't sleep until 7am, if at all. The other issue is that the work load in college is so much heavier and I frequently pull all-nighters (something I suggest avoiding). Of course, one large difference from high school is that I don't have a parent nagging at me to go to bed (and I have no self-disipline).

With my computer next to my bed, I find it hard to resist checking the BD before I sleep, and when I'm on the computer, time just passes so quickly. Right now, it's already 3:45. One thing I do notice about the Downs at night is how empty it is. Right now, there is only one other member online aside from me...

Location: In a tiny, insignificant little town in one of the many States.

Posts: 5,228

Wait till I'm in college, huh? Well...one would think that is when I'd find out, but I am set and determined to get eight hours of sleep as often as possible during my college days. That means, getting my homework done during the day and if I don't have it done by night, not having any computer time. I don't know if my ideas will work, but I tell you - I've talked to too many friends this semester who are hardly having any time for meals or sleeping and I am convinced that sixteen hours of wakefulness is enough time to complete classes, homework, and necessary meals to stay healthy. And that will also provide eight hours of sleeping time. Whether it gives time for being socailable or visiting you chaps here on the Downs and e-mail friends....well...when I'm paying hundreds of dollars for college, college will come first. Sorry.

I've given this a lot of thought. Sorry to have given you a lecture...

-- Foley

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A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. - C.S. Lewis

An explanation on why University Students hardly ever sleep more than six hours

**Disclaimer: This rant is by no-means an answer to Folwren but rather, a rant on why life is so hard on us University/College students. She has the right of doing things whichever way she wants, and of course, once she gets to University she might have a different experience than mine. This rant is just 'cos I like ranting**

Let me give you a quick run-through of the life of a University science student.
Let's assume for a moment that I am taking 5 courses. Not only that, but 5 third/fourth year science courses, which means that they all have a lab.

Now, The lecture portion for each course is about three hours a week, times five, 15 hours a week. Then we have a three hour lab for each course, times five another fifteen hours.

Here's where the fun begins.

Before each lab you need at the very least, to read up on what you are doing and sort of figure out all the procedures, if you don't know them, read them up. That is if you are lucky. If you are not, you also need to write a pre-lab exercise. A pre-lab exercise may take more than two hours and a half, reading up on the lab may take a bit more than an hour... let's make an average and call it two hours per lab. Times five, ten more hours.

Having fun yet? because after each lab you need to write some sort of report... a formal lab report may take more than ten hours of work (MUCH more if they want a detailed one) but that's only once a term (usually)... let's make it an average of three hours to make all calculations and the short write-up for a report that's not the formal. That's another fifteen hours.

At university they recommend that you study three hours for every hour of lecture. Now, I think that's a bit too much, but all in all it usually winds up to two hours per hour of lecture. Not all at the same time, some weeks I need to read more for one class, some weeks more for another, but that's about an average... and it adds up another thirty hours.

That's 85 hours a week of schoolwork. Divide it by seven and you get about 12 hours a day.

I suppose that, as Folwren hinted, if you are willing to leave 4 hours to "live" (including eating and traveling to and from your classes) that's about ok.. but let's face it, IT'S UNIVERSITY! (College for you Americans). Parties, Friends, Socials, Events, Sports.... Barrow Downs... No matter how hard you try to avoid it, sooner or later you will show up at a party, or go watch your school's team, or just hang out 'till late with your friends.

And I mean, what's an hour of sleep, if you can spend it with your buddies relaxing?

A friend of mine who is in Engineering (a rather hard career if you ask me, if they take a bit MORE than a full course-load every year it takes about three years to graduate, if they take the minimum they must to stay in the faculty it takes eight years) said very wisely: "These can be the worst three years of your life or the craziest eight. You need to find the point that will be the best for you."

Moral of the story?
a) DO NOT be a science student... even though Arts students have big papers to write... trust me, labs are twice as much pain, and the formal reports are not any shorter.
a2) If you are a science student, don't take a full course load after first or second year!!!
b) Whatever branch of studies you choose, try to enjoy it as much as possible! There's more to University/College than books and grades... find out a nice balance of fun and hard work and your experience will be quite enjoyable.

College next year for me, too. And late nights for me...too. Likely spent writing posts instead of doing work. (And I'm not touching the science. Yay odd-ball-don't-even-exist-at-most-universities/colleges and likely-going-to-be-lazy Classics majors!)

In other words: if you think my RP characters have problems now, then you should just wait till next fall...

Farael - Your schedule is a lot like some of my friends'...I'll be remembering you guys when I start complaining about my schedule next year!

Each of those lab courses had, as Farael said, prelab work for the procedures and lab reports (usually about 5 pages and then with pretty tables and figures to do as well). I was just a little overloaded.

I'm occasionally here at about 2 AM, mostly when I'm assigned to work odd hours. The 4 pm to midnight shift is irritating.

__________________
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff.

Location: In a tiny, insignificant little town in one of the many States.

Posts: 5,228

Very well put, Farael. I can see the difficulty in juggling 85 hours of school work a day. But that's not the work load that my friends have been trying to handle. I talk to people who have probably eight to ten hours of work to do a day, including classes, lectures, meetings, and homework. That's as much time as I spend at work. And they're having problems eating properly and sleeping enough and I can't figure out why. I don't plan on getting a degree in Science. If I get a degree in anything (I'm not even sure I'm going to college), it'll be in English or some sort of Business (I may become a secretary).

I think, for what I am going to be doing in college, I will be able to get my necessary sleep. I won't be visiting the Barrow Downs at 1:00 a.m. Whenever I stay up that late, I'm useless the day after. I'd schedule myself, and I'd hope to get some time here.

Of course, you just watch - I join college and I totally go against what I've been saying here. That would be poetic justice, wouldn't it? So far as I know, I really am intending to eat and sleep...but necessity may change ideas.

-- Folwren

P.S. Am I sounding like a snob? I don't mean to be. I'm actually venting a lot of frustration. Two friends have just recently cried on my shoulder (it's a saying) about how awful they've been taking care of themselves during the school year, how stressed out they are, how little sleep they've been getting, and on and on......I can't fathom it. But then, I'm not a college student.

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A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. - C.S. Lewis

Second hour after midnight is about to go here, so I just want to add to this company...
I don't feel up to writing something long now, but I want to add to these college talks. Shortly and briefly: it's good to enjoy it, nothing stressy, the world doesn't depend on it, even you don't depend on it, you can make all in no problem if you know where to seek help. Of course one has to be careful though, since the schedule can be nasty if you don't realize quickly where you are. You can miss the train pretty easily. But, if you enjoy the study, you possibly would also care for it up to the point that you attempt to catch up with the studying plan, if you get what I mean. But even if you enjoy it, even if you are running with the train, you'll eventually find out (and that's right in any case as far as I know - if anyone has other experience, please let me know), if you have courses 16 hours or 4 hours per day, you'll realize that in the end it's the same, even if you had no courses at the time, you'll find that you are busy anyway.
See, I'm not much of a night owl, and I returned home at about 17:45 today, which is nice time (I have also a job for 10 hours a week, which means generally 2 hours per day, as an assistant in elementary school on the "step-by-step" educational project, if you heard about it). The last 6 hours I have spent with preparing for tomorrow, and, uh, a little bit looking here and there on the Downs You know, uh, just to get my mind off things But as you see, generally I manage to finish by midnight. I'm waking up at 6:30 tomorrow.
Okay, this was neither short nor brief.
Blaah blah blah.
Good night all.

__________________"But it is not your own Shire," said Gildor. "Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out."

I used to only be able to really check the barrowdowns around 1 AM during this past semester... Needless to say thats not a popular time for downers, so the barrow got a rather lonely feel to it.

Lately it's just been me banging my head against my desk with that wonderful RPG of Glirdan. I love it, but it makes me feel so impatient!

There was one time when Valier and I were the only ones online and we were both on our game "Which Downer Am I"-wise. Partly because that was the only active thread at the time and we were both bored stupid. I still wish I could have seen some of those expressions of other players waking up to discover that.

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"Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, 'egges' or 'eyren'?" - Caxton, Eneydos

Here here! On those University rants. I am also glad to see we have a large population of science students! I'm one too. Celuien what are studying now?

Farael, kudos to you for putting up with it so far and for even choosing to take on a full schedule.

Although somewhat different, I know that as an A-level student we had the choice to continue on four subjects or drop one when going onto A2. However only the "silly" (like yourself. ) or the "brave" (like yourself ) or the very clever (like yourself ) or those who wished to better themselves (like yourself) chose to do so.

I am none of the above and so chose to drop one! This gave me an extra six free study periods a week, and went a long way to help me obtain a much higher quality three A-levels than if I had chosen four. Plus extra time to muck around!

And as a Biologist student now at University, I am experiencing and foresee in the future, busy schedules also. And I am sure if there is ever the choice to do more or less modules, (rather bleak because the module system works on a number of points set for every student, who must make up those points with modules. Each module being a set amount of points, which I think is used in every year.), I know I will probably take the option of choosing less...

Also to tack on the end of you rant, I would just like to add, to those in first year of college/university, that the FIRST year is still an IMPORTANT year, and not a year to "doss" around as many second, third, fourth years have told me. A solid ground in the first year obviously promote your understanding in the second year.

Dammit you older people, stop saying us "freshers" can join everything because missing lectures in the first year doesn't matter, it DOES!

Valesse, I know what you mean about the emptyness of the site. Being up occasionally till 4am the past few hours are bleak, and as Kath has said, I too wish I would do something constructive during that time.

But for some reason I can't, I end up just reading and saving webpages to respond to later. At that time I think I must be slightly comatose...

How can I not love you, Farael? You just practically summed up my life!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mänwe

Dammit you older people, stop saying us "freshers" can join everything because missing lectures in the first year doesn't matter, it DOES!

I'm willing to bet that I'm not an "older person," but I completely agree. Even when you think you have the advantage of having taken up some of the freshie courses in high school, it's still not worth skipping classes.

I'm not exactly a late nighter, as you would put it, and in this context, myself though. Maybe I should count it a blessing that I don't have immediately available internet access, because I doubt I would be able to resist the temptation. (Who can resist sneaking into the Downs while intermittently looking up the MSDS for benzaldehyde, or whatever?) And it so happens that I'm a bit of a night owl, so I might not sleep at all in that case. And unfortunately I don't drink coffee at all, so...that has to have some adverse effects.

I can just imagine, however, that the Downs helps one keep awake while doing a post-lab report in the wee hours of the morning. The problem is that one might tend to forget the lab report entirely, and write an RPG post instead.

Here here! On those University rants. I am also glad to see we have a large population of science students! I'm one too. Celuien what are studying now?

I'm now a medical student, eagerly counting down to graduation in May. So I can pull even more all nighters next year.

Reading the 'Downs was a helpful break from writing lab reports in the computer lab. Registering and writing is even better.

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People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff.

Farael, kudos to you for putting up with it so far and for even choosing to take on a full schedule.

Oh, I fear I was misnuderstood.... I did that insanity on first year, then on second year I only took four courses and did MUCH better... and this term I only took three 'cos I was working part-time but it was a bad move since my job was awful and it took away much more studying time than what I expected.

We are quite a few Science students here... problem is, we are often over-shadowed by the much more talkative, and much more experienced in writing, arts students.

I think we should all get our heads together and start a "Science of Tolkien" thread... in the Mirth section. That could be quite amusing "Sexual Dymorphism in Ent populations" or "Genetic engeneering: Orcs, a better elf?" or perhaps "Mt. Doom and carbon monoxide emissions, Mordor not complying with the Kyoto agreement?"

Farael, that's a great idea! And I don't mean just because I've thought about it earlier Actually I've been thinking about science-ME for a long time now. For example inheritance, does it work in the same way as in our world? And is there any evolution at all? The world doesn't seem evolve, and as it was created complete, maybe it doesn't need to evolve!

A half serious, half nutty thread on the subject would be perfect! I'm looking forward to it...

__________________
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff.

Location: Polishing the stars. Well, somebody has to do it; they're looking a little bit dull.

Posts: 2,897

All you people remind me why I'm not a science student. I haven't touched the subject for three years, and the thought of it makes me shudder.

I go to a liberal arts and communications school (theatre, film, audio, writing, marketing, journalism, political comm. , and comm. disorders are the basic majors available), but that doesn't mean it's any easier. As a freshman, I just completed my first 17 credits, which is about 18 hours of classes a week, plus 8 hours of work study (I work at a scene shop which involves lots of manual labor- it can be exhausting from time to time). Actually, that's not too terrible. Of course, I always have at least four hours of homework each night, usually more. All that involves is reading and writing. Through most of the semester, I mostly struggled to adjust to the college life- high school was a breeze for me- but now I have to actually really work, something extremely difficult for a procrastinator. And of course, all my work was done on the computer, which is terribly distracting (the Barrow Downs is just a click away!). Though, what's even more distracting is what goes on in the dorm. I live with five other girls and there's constantly other people around, and lately I feel like a hermit crab locked away in my room attempting to complete my schoolwork. Not to mention, the weeks after Thanksgiving are absolute chaos. In one week, I had six papers/projects due, the longest being eight pages. For one who typically wrote two page papers throughout high school, a task like that is just overwhelming. And I promise, during that one week, eight hours of sleep per night was impossible. I'm just glad it's over...

As a film major, my schedule will only get worse in the future as I become involved with shoots and other stuff. I've seen the upperclassmen and how crazy their lives are, and I realize I'm going to need to start managing my time better. I didn't join a club this semester- instead I chose to take some time to adjust- a very smart thing, I think. But next semester, I plan to join a film club, which means I'll get to spend much of my free time working as a crew member in film shoots. Plus, I plan to work more hours during the week.

Folwren, I wish you the best in college and hope your plan works out. Some people can handle stress better than others. From the beginning, I knew I'd be pulling all-nighters. After all, in high school I was already living off five hours of sleep (of course with the time I had to wake up in the morning, if I got eight hours of sleep, I'd be going to bed at 8:30pm ). Meanwhile, I have a friend from high school who always got her work done ahead of time and went to bed plenty early- I'll have to ask her how she's handling her workload now that she's in college. Just a word of advice: if possible, don't ever schedule an early class. All year, I have to be up for 8:30 classes almost every day....and well....it's absolutely miserable. Oh, and when you're in college, napping is no longer for little children...

Have you ever been so tired that you can't sleep? I guess it would be like getting a second wind. It's almost 3am where I am...YIKES! OH and I just checked Who's online and guess what?! I'm the only one. How very lonely indeed

Actually the Downs is the reason I have this weird sleeping pattern. . .

In the begining (over a year ago) I would sit up watching the quiz room until 12 maybe 1 am and then slowly it would get later and later, until I was not able to go to bed before 3 am. It all culminated in a marathin msn conversation which started pretty early in the evening and on my part ended at 7am in the morning.

Now I am more likely to get to bed around 4-5 am than 3 am, but one thing has changed. These last months my addiction has kind of disapeared. I no longer feel the need to reply to almost anything and where I would refresh the page every other minute, I will now only check in a few times a day(with exeptions).

I think it is because I have started LJ and because I have gotten more busy these days.

well, I guess I qualify for this category as well...last visited the site today at 01:56 CET
anyway, currently this isn't a problem, since I am on vacation, but when it's over I guess I'll have to stop staying up late, it would probably have a bad influence on my performance in school.

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“The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.”Delos B. McKown